Patrick Bailey reflects on Super Bowl, looks ahead to making Steelers’ team

Tuesday

Apr 28, 2009 at 12:01 AMApr 28, 2009 at 12:45 AM

Patrick Bailey squatted down, bending his 6-foot-4 frame in half to make the perfect armrest for an unsuspecting young man whose smile could not get any wider. “Just a picture,” the youngster told Bailey, his new favorite National Football League player, who had also offered to sign a few autographs.

Derrick Balinsky

Patrick Bailey squatted down, bending his 6-foot-4 frame in half to make the perfect armrest for an unsuspecting young man whose smile could not get any wider.

“Just a picture,” the youngster told Bailey, his new favorite National Football League player, who had also offered to sign a few autographs.

Bailey, a 235-pound linebacker who usually makes his living on special teams, has many “new” fans, especially considering his team — the Pittsburgh Steelers — defeated the Arizona Cardinals, 27-23, in Super Bowl XLIII. Still, Super Bowl stardom hasn’t changed Bailey, who made an appearance at the Poor American’s Cafe for a reception hosted by his grandparents, Donna and Jim Bailey of Dalton.

“I was once there,”?Bailey said when asked about his relationship with the younger fans. “Football is really about kids. Anyone who is interested in the game can remember a time when they were with their parents watching or listening to a game. I remember that as a kid and, shoot, if I?met somebody who played, I would have been jumping for joy. I know that and I try to make the game of football more fun for them so that they can have a good time, too.

“It’s changing a little bit, but for the most part I enjoy it here because it’s been consistent throughout my life,” Bailey, a native of Elmendorf, Texas, added when asked about returning to his home away from home. “No matter what everything stays the same. Anywhere else, you don’t really get that nostalgic feeling. But whenever I?come here I can say, ‘That’s where this is, that’s where that is, or this happened here.’ I like it the way it is because that’s how I?remember it as a kid.”

While Bailey has been enjoying the newfound fame and success, he also realizes there is a greater task at hand. The Steelers usually schedule the start of their annual training camp for the end of July and the near future for Bailey means earning another spot on the Steelers’ 53-man roster.

“You have that time where you enjoy it and everything’s great — of course it’s exciting, but you also are forced to think about the fact that you’re starting back over very shortly. At this point of the year we are getting ready for next year. Basically, that’s the past and you enjoy it, especially at events such as this, but that’s the past and now comes the future. I’ll be around for the coming year and we’ll just see where things go,”?Bailey said. “I have to continually make the team, that’s the hard part. It’s just continually going to work and putting your best foot forward.

“For me, the preseason is basically the interviewing process,” he added. “You have to show them that you are the guy who is going to fill that job. That’s what I?have to do and I?believe that I am capable of doing that.”

Bailey went on to discuss Super Bowl week and the moments leading up to the victory celebration.

“I’ve reflected back on the week and the game,”?Bailey said. “Something great was going on in that game. It was a lot of fun, not only to watch it, but to be a part of it. It was just a tremendous experience. It was great to have my family there, that always makes things a little more special. I just remember after the game that my brothers were up in the stands and after we had won, I pulled them down out of the stands and they were able to take some pictures with the Lombardi, and now they’re able to tell some great stories.

“The one thing I?know about the NFL?is that every player in the league is capable of making plays,”?Bailey continued. “You never know that the game is over until it’s actually over. A lot of people were disheartened when (Larry) Fitzgerald made his long run and they scored. Everybody was like, ‘oh, gosh, what’s going on?’ We drove back down the field and Santonio (Holmes)?and all of our offensive players put on a great drive and we scored. We still needed to kick off and make sure our defense had good field position. But I?guess when our defense got the last turnover on downs and we just had to knee it — that’s when I knew it. Still, you never know. There are guys out there who are capable of making the plays on every single play.”

While Bailey was enjoying his stay in Dalton and Nunda, the Steelers were busy finishing up the 2009 draft. With its first-round pick, Pittsburgh selected Evander “Ziggy”?Hood, a defensive tackle out of the University of Missouri. The Steelers, who weren’t afforded a second-round pick, went on to add Kraig Urbik, an offensive guard out of Wisconsin; Mike Wallace, a wideout from Mississippi; and Keenan Lewis, a corner from Oregon State, in Round 3 of the weekend’s draft.

“I don’t say anything about the draft,” Bailey said. “But I do believe that they picked the best caliber guys. The Rooneys, and (coach Mike) Tomlin and the Steelers’ organization as a whole always picks good, quality guys and that’s awesome. There are some awfully good players and you can see that in everybody who is already there.”

Despite the majority, if not all of last season’s squad remaining intact, Bailey wasn’t ready to guarantee a Super repeat. The goal itself, however, remains at the top of the list.

“We just have to take things one step at a time,”?Bailey said. “Going into mini camp we have to learn the defensive game and make sure that we’re very efficient at it. And we have to go through the season taking care of one game at a time. We want to go back, who wouldn’t? We just have to make sure we put the work into getting there.”

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